The name of the Doom Marine.

Xegethra said:

Wolfenstein RPG kinda has already retconned Doom Guy to be a descendant of the Blazkowicz family by making the Cyberdemon, another incarnation of the Harginger....

That's correct, it's more or less what I said two pages back.

fraggle said:

The years weren't so kind to him.

Damn Doom looks like he took a massive dose of steroids while he ran 5 marathons.

Jaxxoon R said:

"THIS IS MY TRUE FORM!"
Said the Cyberdemon

>_>

How on Earth I managed to type that is beyond me! Nice to know there is an image to go with it haha.

IMX said:

That's correct, it's more or less what I said two pages back.

Indeedy, so you did!

I don't know but, i would like to write new Doom novels, for me of course

Ignoring my opinion that the Doom novels are juvenile, stiffly written, boring and utterly cheesy, Flynn Taggart is a shitty-ass name in the same sense that Brett Taylor or Zach Walker are shitty ass-names, given the context. Granted, "Flynn" and "Taggart" are not nearly as common as the examples I gave, but I expect my protagonist to have an interesting name that is satisfying to say in my head as I read the novel, and the name just makes me roll my eyes. There's just something uninteresting about it. However, John Grimm is a far worse name.

This thread has taught me that Doomguy has at least 4 official names. Him being related to BJ makes more sense than the rest of them though, looking back.

Maybe his name is Doom like Maes said and the titles of the games are just supporting his ego problem. Makes as much sense as the other ones, after all. It's a cooler name than Flynn, at least.

I do like both Flynn Taggart and Buddy Dacote, but Huy Pham, that also makes sense. :P I also named the Doomguy "Keith" for some reason.

One of the track names in Doom 2 is called "Shawn's got the shotgun", so I dunno, maybe it's Shawn? Or was originally intended to be at some point?

Either way, I like the fact that he has no name. Because as Romero said, it's YOU.

Shawn was a member of the Doom development team. Shawn Green was his full name.

That song is named "Shawn's Got the Shotgun" because Bobby got the inspiration when he watched him and Romero deathmatch, and Shawn would always go for the shotgun.

Tom hall is doomguy.

Englander said:

One of the track names in Doom 2 is called "Shawn's got the shotgun", so I dunno, maybe it's Shawn? Or was originally intended to be at some point?

All the person names in Doom song titles are reference to real people who worked at or for id back then.

Adrian Carmack: The Demons from Adrian's Pen; Adrian's Asleep
Donna Jackson: Donna to the Rescue
Shawn Green: Shawn's got the Shotgun
Dave D. Taylor: The Dave D. Taylor Blues
Sandy Petersen: Into Sandy's City
John Romero: Waiting for Romero to Play
And maybe even American McGee: Bye bye American Pie

People who were involved in Doom or Doom II but didn't get to have a dedicated song in Doom: Kevin Cloud, Gregor Punchatz, Tom Hall, Jay Wilbur, Paul Radek, and Bobby Prince himself.

While I get the idea that some(many?) don't even take the idea of the discussion seriously, I want to say to all of those that contributed your thoughts... Well, they are appreciated.

Trying to understand what it is that the community either loves or hates about the name is a little more complicated than it seems on the surface. As I thought, in some cases it seems to be the sour taste of the novels, not the name itself, that is leading to the negative reaction towards "Flynn Taggart."

I can't agree with the notion that the name is bad or wrong because it doesn't sound like a "tough guy" name. That doesn't make sense. People aren't predefined by their name. "Buddy Dacote" doesn't sound like a tough guy name, but i've never seen anyone react to it with any ire or sense of discontent.

As to the nature of Doom's canon, or lore, and what names have any official standing, I think that's beyond the scope of this thread to begin with. However, i'd argue that anything taken from official documentation or from a game source would stand up to scrutiny more than anything from expanded universe materials, like the film or the novels.

The backstory for the game, and the notion that the game itself has "you" filling in the personality gaps, read very much like table top RPG setups for a character. You have your backstory and then you play the game. So obviously things like play style, and so on are up to the player.

Does the marine need a name? I think it could be argued both ways. I think one of the big stumbling blocks of Doom 3 was that it felt like it wanted to have it both ways regarding the story telling style. I found most of the cutscenes to be a jarring experience. Not in keeping with the notion that *you* are the marine, because you are constantly being shown your own character as if it were an external entity from "you." I think it would have been good had they skipped over the attempts at aping half-life, and given the marine character some additional backstory, personality, and even a name.

Flynn Taggart. Flynn. Taggart. Taggart, to rhyme with homosexual. Flynn, to make him sound like he's skinny and possibly effeminate. What a name for a hero. Better than Master Chief, though. Master Chief sounds like he was named by a four year old who wanted to make the character sound Especially Important.

Couldn't we officially rename the Doom marine to something that sounds tougher than Flynn Taggart? For example, Rupert Chives, or Arthur Trump?

EDIT: What about John Hicks? On its own, Hicks would sound ridiculous, but it's the name of one of sci-fi's greatest ever characters. Still don't understand why we didn't see Michael Beihn in more films. He's a brilliant actor in the intense roles of Hicks and Kyle Reese. Ooh! Kyle Hicks!!!

EDIT 2: KYLE HUDSON.

But Master Chief Petty Officer is a real military rank. :P

Then I must sign up and become it. It would make people think I'm in charge of the universe. EDIT: I'd obviously have to drop the "petty officer" bit when introducing myself to women.

MajorRawne said:

Flynn Taggart. Flynn. Taggart. Taggart, to rhyme with homosexual.

...Could you please clarify that remark?

OpenMaw said:

...Could you please clarify that remark?

He means "Faggot"

As far as I know, Buddy Dacote was never meant to be a playable character, despite a lot of people thinking he was.

He walked out in the intro cutscene, leaving the four marines on their own to finish playing cards. He isn't given any special strengths or weaknesses for the gameplay in his description. It's mentioned that you were to find his hat laying about in the lab. Tom has stated that he wanted you to get radio messages from him giving hints and begging to be rescued.

He was to be ripped in half by the Barons in the boss stage (maybe that's what those sprites from the press release beta were for?). It also doesn't make any sense for one of the player characters to be killed off when there's more 5 more episodes to go.

ROTT may have had five playable characters, but keep in mind that Doom only supported four players in co-op, and ROTT was a completely different game.

Jaxxoon R said:

"THIS IS MY TRUE FORM!"
Said the Cyberdemon

And he fired his rocket missiles and blew up the wall trapping them.

NOOOOO! La Bamba screamed, I MUST KILL THE DEMONS!

The radio crackered, No La Bamba you are the demons.

And than La Bamba was a zombie.

Cue Bobby Prince`s Taco Bell Power Ranger DOOM PC music.

Phobus said:

He means "Faggot"

Ah, i'm an idiot. Thank you.

Sodaholic said:

As far as I know, Buddy Dacote was never meant to be a playable character, despite a lot of people thinking he was.

The fundamental reason for that is some of the characteristics of Buddy are similar to the events the Doom marine goes through in E1. In a very very vague sense.

Including the often argued "Dies At Conclusion Of The Episode." YMMV.

MajorRawne said:

Flynn Taggart. Flynn. Taggart. Taggart, to rhyme with homosexual. Flynn, to make him sound like he's skinny and possibly effeminate. What a name for a hero.

I was going to refrain from mentioning this, but since it's been brought up, there's also that pairing an "F" name with Taggart reinforces the Faggot connection through the ease of swapping initial letters.

For me it is just 'DoomGuy' or 'Doom Guy', its just perfect for the game. In other games (modern ones) where there is a giant story line a missing name would break and kill it off before it started.

But in the case of doom / doom 2, knowing the name of the character would kind of feel odd and take away that which the game became...
An imersive shooter where you the player do things, and not some character you 'guide' through a semi-movie. I hope this is an on topic answer, as i sometimes could not keep track of it between the answers which are already there.

Huy Pham

Kyle Bishop. Not only does it evoke two amazing actors/characters/films, it has the appropriate religious overtone of a bishop kicking demon arse.

Unfortunately Kyle sounds like a twenty year old surfer dude. It would lose dramatic impact if Satan said "I don't need the pitchfork, Kyle."

G.I. Joe

DoomedDoomguyFromDoom.

Your all wrong.

He's called Bob

That's it discussion over. Close the thread.

Dave

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